Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships 
asked by mike on November 28, 2006 10:16 AM
Emotional Intelligence was an international phenomenon, appearing on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year, and selling more than five million copies worldwide. Now, once again, Daniel Goleman presents groundbreaking work that synthesizes the latest findings in biology and brain science, revealing that we are "wired to connect," and showing the surprisingly deep impact of our relationships on every aspect our lives.In richly anecdotal detail, Goleman brings to life the entirely new field of social neuroscience that has emerged in the decade since the publication of Emotional Intelligence. He shows that, far more than we are consciously aware, our daily encounters with parents, spouses, bosses, and even strangers shape our brains and affect cells throughout our bodies. Our relationships create a setpoint for our daily moods and influence our immune response; they are crucial to achievement in students and workers; they determine whether or not some genes are expressed, for good or ill.Above all, Goleman explores the foundations of rapport, love, cooperation, and altruism, with major implications for the wellbeing of our families, communities, and workplace. Whether you listen to this as a lover or parent, medical professional or businessperson, teacher or community leader, you will never see your relationships in the same way again.
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I heard an interview with Daniel Goleman on NPR and thought this book sounded fascinating. Goleman explained that research into neuroscience was exploding, and that researchers had recently discovered biological, chemical and structural aspects of the brain that correspond to fluency in social interactions. When people strongly connect in social situations, the chemical activity in each person's brain actually synchs up with the other participants'. This causes a ripple effect throughout the body, causing greater and greater physiological connections. A person with high "social intelligence" has this effect to a much greater degree than others; an charimatic person can affect the physiology of a crowd of hundreds or even thousands. Goleman claims that such research will have a profound effect on the theory of social interactions and interpersonal relationships.
Unfortunately, the ten-minute interview was much more interesting and informative than the book. After making that basic point in the first five pages in the introduction, Goleman wanders incoherently from topic to topic, with no attempt at all to structure a cohesive argument or to draw any overarching conclusions from the material he discusses. Instead, each chapter consists of a series of only loosely related anecdotes that supposedly correspond to one research study or another. Goleman makes no attempt to explain the connections between these subsections or to thread them together into a coherent whole. Indeed, the entire book consists almost entirely of a series of examples, but Goleman never explains what the examples are supposed to be illustrating.
I found it impossible to read this book straight through. It's as if Goleman knew that most of the readers would just flip the book open at random and read a tiny snippet here and there. If the book is approached in that manner, a reader might think that the book looks pretty interesting and conclude that there must be something there. Goleman must have been banking on the fact that most people would not go beyond such superficial browsing. As someone who made a sincere attempt to read the book straight through, I actually feel deceived.
Unfortunately, the ten-minute interview was much more interesting and informative than the book. After making that basic point in the first five pages in the introduction, Goleman wanders incoherently from topic to topic, with no attempt at all to structure a cohesive argument or to draw any overarching conclusions from the material he discusses. Instead, each chapter consists of a series of only loosely related anecdotes that supposedly correspond to one research study or another. Goleman makes no attempt to explain the connections between these subsections or to thread them together into a coherent whole. Indeed, the entire book consists almost entirely of a series of examples, but Goleman never explains what the examples are supposed to be illustrating.
I found it impossible to read this book straight through. It's as if Goleman knew that most of the readers would just flip the book open at random and read a tiny snippet here and there. If the book is approached in that manner, a reader might think that the book looks pretty interesting and conclude that there must be something there. Goleman must have been banking on the fact that most people would not go beyond such superficial browsing. As someone who made a sincere attempt to read the book straight through, I actually feel deceived.
reviewed by guitarplayer on November 29, 2006 6:20 PM
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There is about as much additional science in Social Intelligence, compared to Emotional Intelligence, as you could write on a postcard : mirror neurones and spindle cells. Nevertheless, we can be thankful that Daniel Goleman chose to pay his tax bills this way. Firstly, it serves to bring back the lessons of the earlier book to best-seller awareness, which is goodness. Secondly, it re-casts them more clearly in an inter-personal format. Note that this already existed in Emotional Intelligence, but was not so clearly called out.
The most positive aspect is the confirmation provided by fMRI studies to previous empirical or intuitive knowledge on the importance of inter-personal relationships to psychic ecology. A question-mark would be against the reliance on Seligman's and Csikszentmihalyi's questionnaire based results. Questionnaire psychology is frustratingly limited in the gap between the suggestive nature of the results and the impossibilty of distinguishing between correlation and cause-effect.
The most positive aspect is the confirmation provided by fMRI studies to previous empirical or intuitive knowledge on the importance of inter-personal relationships to psychic ecology. A question-mark would be against the reliance on Seligman's and Csikszentmihalyi's questionnaire based results. Questionnaire psychology is frustratingly limited in the gap between the suggestive nature of the results and the impossibilty of distinguishing between correlation and cause-effect.
reviewed by potato on November 29, 2006 7:33 PM
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During the first third of this book, I was completely carried along by the scientific outlook and optimism. There are two mutually supporting aspects of social intelligence discussed in detail. One is human relations by the instinctual fast mode, called "the low road" and the other is the more intellectual and slow mode called "the high road". The distinctions are fascinating. Without the modern neurological biochemistry, his book could have been written 100 years ago, and probably was, many times over. What is now different is that both fast and slow thought processes can be traced to particular parts of the brain and to more or less of certain biochemicals being present. This does not yet lead to any better understanding of social intelligence, which is practiced so well by successful politicians, clergy, opinion leaders, and rabble rousers who would be dictators. Social intelligence is said to be at least as important as scientific or technical intelligence, and to be under appreciated. Maybe so, but was Benito Mussolini really smarter than Enrico Fermi? Was Hideki Tojo really smarter than Akio Morita of Sony?
The interplay with detailed physiology of human interactions and physical damage is given in great detail, and most of it is probably accurate. Unfortunately, Goleman agrees with the standard dogma on cholesterol and blood pressure. See book: Malignant Medical Myths, 2006 (MMM). Goleman gave much attention to chemical differences in criminals. What a shock that the true effects of cholesterol in criminals is completely ignored. A large number of clinical studies showed that cholesterol levels
The interplay with detailed physiology of human interactions and physical damage is given in great detail, and most of it is probably accurate. Unfortunately, Goleman agrees with the standard dogma on cholesterol and blood pressure. See book: Malignant Medical Myths, 2006 (MMM). Goleman gave much attention to chemical differences in criminals. What a shock that the true effects of cholesterol in criminals is completely ignored. A large number of clinical studies showed that cholesterol levels
reviewed by ivan on November 29, 2006 7:34 PM